Followers

Pages

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Here is a sweet little wreath I made using some 3mm ribbon and the butterfly nature ribbon.

I picked up a plain metal wreath from a market in Henley. I gave it a rough and light coat of gesso and then spritzed it with some mists.

I
generously applied matte medium to the back of the butterfly ribbon and
allowed it to dry. This stiffens the ribbon and stops the edges from
fraying enabling you to cut out shapes from ribbon. I attached my butterfly with glue gel.

Having the colour of the butterfly on one side and nothing on the other didn't look quite right so I added a few tufts of red to the other side of the wreath to balance it out.

My enthusiasm for writing blog posts is missing today. Rather than write 5 posts I'm going to mush all the layouts and questions in to one... maybe best to grab a cuppa!

First up, I need a little help (or perhaps more than a little!!). I'm channelling Paige Evans a la (who?! I read a post, I think a CKC'er, who did a post on Paige that inspired me. For the life of me I cannot remember who, the blog name, I've been through my history and can't find it, argh! If it was you please tell me so I can credit you!! You inspire me!) and came up with this half layout. The thing is I don't know which way round the photo goes. I started off with the photo at the top, trying to be inspired by rather than copying.Edit: It's Andrea from Hippie Art Studio who started me off on this

It just looks like triangles draining out of me whilst I sleep. The other way looks like triangles funnelling in to me whilst I sleep. What words should I use? Which way round? Should I make it negative or positive? What I mean is... I have ME and quite often do feel like the energy is being drained out of me - but I like to keep positive and almost always scrap in happy colours and attitudes. Would negative journalling work with the light, bright and CAS layout? I need opinions on this or there is a danger it will go in a box and be ignored and never finished!!

I'm Not Sure

For this cute layout I used up some stickers and transparencies from my kit. I love these colours together. Also added a length of 3mm grosgrain ribbon that has just joined my stash. I have photographed it all so will (hopefully) be blogging about it soon...

A Denim Shorts Kind Of Day

I used a couple of stickers , the last bit of the heart patterned paper, flair and enamel dots from my kit on this layout. (I may have added the dots actually...)

Billy

These yellow strips were leftovers and happened to fill just over 12 inches. I stitched them together to make a background sheet. I took a meter length of satin ribbon and made a 12" ruffle to sit my photos on. Even with a white mat the photos looked a little lost against the bright and vibrant yellows. I mixed gesso with a little water and spritzed the paper and ribbon, concentrating the spray more at the base of the page giving an ombre feel. I added a few enamel dots too - I think I am in love with enamel dots. I may be a little behind in catching this trend but hey!

My Swanky New Lens

This layout uses the one strip of yellow that was left from the layout above, and two more chunks of patterned paper. I had tried to use the acetate butterflies on almost every layout but the didn't make the final cut... they finally made it on to this one :)

So there is a round up of the last few CKC layouts. I hope to assess what's left and do a final post but it may not get done... it's like that here at the moment!

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks in advance for the advice on the unfinished layout, and sorry Andrea for forgetting who you were!!

Sunday, 27 July 2014

So over at SJ's there is an intriguing challenge. Sarah has started a layout, given us the dimensions and positions for us to copy, then we all split off and finish it however we like. Sort of a jump start to a layout - no thinking until half way through.

It's almost the same measurements as Sarah's, but as I was using my more-than-half-used kit I had to make do with the paper pieces I had left.

Here (with a little too much flash) is my finished layout;

I've decided that a) I print far too many photos and b) I'm never going to get round to putting all the photos I have on layouts. My solution = stuff an envelope pocket with 5 photos. They are all in the first few days of life when everything warranted a photo. (Mind you, :) I still think everything warrants a photo!) When he is bigger and wants to look through he can easily slip the photos out of the pocket. I added a few enamel dots, using similar colours to the paper they were stuck over. They don't stand out too much but I don't think they need to - all the pattern is enough 'busy' for the page. Self coloured dots just add a little subtle interest.

I really enjoyed half lifting a layout, and think I'll use this technique again, especially when I'm a little stuck for ideas. Thanks Sarah!

Thursday, 24 July 2014

Can I share two layouts with you today? They are both made with my counterfeit kit...

Nap Time.

I used a ton of frames on this layout...

Some wood, some acetate, some paper, most muted in colour and all filled with lovely spotty paper.

The flair is from Hey Little Magpie and I'm using it as my title too. I bought it because there is a baby around and I was bound to get some cute photos of him snoozing. Little did I realise I'd catch Grandad and Baby snoozing together! :)

Are You Serious?

Ah, the face! So full of expression. I was showing him a bird book, he wasn't impressed. I now have a book about teddies which seems to be more to his taste :)

I managed to use some of the stickers I promised I'd use up. And a couple more acetate shapes.

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

This is my take on challenge 2 for July's Counterfeit Kit Challenge. We were to use more than three techniques. I'm never entirely sure what counts as a technique. Let me run you through what I've done and you can tell me how many are actual techniques and how many I've made up!!

Paint splattering. I didn't have any matching ink so I let down a little bit of acrylic - it worked just as well.

Sticker outlines. I cut out the over-run of the stickers and use them as extras. Makes a sheet of stickers go twice as far :) Is stash-stretching a technique?

Using 3d glue gel. I love to use this on butterflies to keep them 3d even when you squash them in to wallets.

Colour changing a PL card. This cute card with the banner had red dots to begin with. It jarred with the photo so I painted over each red dot with the acrylic paint I used to splatter the background.

Matting. Is this a technique?!

Of course I added ribbon too, in the pennant shape that kept popping up in the kit.

'Nother layout from my Counterfeit Kit... I think because I am still stuck on clean and simple the kit is stretching much farther than I thought. I vowed to use all the paper and most of the stickers. I didn't realise that I'm not too good with stickers! I made extra effort on this one...

Thursday, 17 July 2014

Challenge time over at Crafty Ribbons Challenges. Marianne has picked the theme and it is Fairies. I'm not going to lie - I struggled. I looked at photos dating back to 2005 and could find nothing of my girls that was remotely fairy-ish. I looked through all my stash - again nothing fairy-ish. I then though about the Tooth Fairy... The Tooth Fairy is a fairy, right? Says so in the name... So out came the box of photos and I went back to 1989 and found this one.

Everything I say on this blog is my personal opinion. I do receive free supplies from Crafty Ribbons and SpiegelMom Scraps as a member of their Design Teams. I only recommend and rave about products I love.